IN KING EDWARD VII.'S KITCHEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13325, 3 November 1906, Page 5 (Supplement)

IN KING EDWARD VII.'S KITCHEN.

A SYSTKM unlike that to be found anywhere else prevails in the kitchen where the meals of King Edward are prepared. The Royal chef is a Frenchman, paid a liberal salary, and with free lodging near the Royal palace. If is his business to superintend only the King's lunch and dinner. He has nothing whatever to do, says What to Eat, with the breakfast. When the dinner is to be served the scene in the kitchen is one of perfect order and readiness. The cold dishes which were prepared during the morning stand on the table, surrounded if necessary by ice ; the birds and other such dainties which are to be served, cooked to a second, are ready to hand. * Now the hors d'eeuvres are sent forward to an anteroom, which in the case of Buckingham Palace is nearly 300 yards from the kitchen. The assistants are clad in spotless linen, they all work by the clock, and each dish is commenced and finished to within a minute of the appointed time. The chef walks around and superintends, but. his assistants are so well drilled in their respective duties that he seldom needs to give an order, though here and there he offers a suggestion for the further perfection of some little dainty. During this time he. is himself thinking out the final details of the masterpiece of the table, which he takes particularly under his own care. Just outside the door of the diniu<'-hall there is a department where the "final touches are given to the delicate and costly preparations. At Buckingham Palace fit contains a hot table, upon which the dishes rest in readiness for their distribution to the table attendants. 'The man who wields authority here is clad in immaculate evening dress and wears white gloves, and in a voice which is rarely raised above a whisper he gives the minutest directions' as to what is to be done with each particular item on the menu from the moment when it leaves the anteroom and passes finally from his care. Helavs of men and women bearers convey all these dishes from the kitchen to the 'anteroom. The passages from the kitchen are lung, with awkward corners in them here and there, and in order to prevent collisions in the. burn- of the work an ingenious arrangement of mirrors has been effected at these corners, so that the bearers mav see whether the road is clear for therm Attendants are strictly forbidden to enter any other apartment than that with which they are immediately concerned, and even tne dish-bearers are'prohibited from passing down other corridors than those winch are set apart for their special use.